Maria Comella, a former top aide to New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, says she will vote for Democrat Hillary Clinton for president, CNN reports.

Comella told CNN in an email that she is a lifelong Republican, but was taught by her GOP-supporting principles that principle was more important that party. She said she sees the opposite with current party leaders, including her former boss.

"Donald Trump has been a demagogue this whole time, preying on people's anxieties with loose information and salacious rhetoric, drumming up fear and hatred of the 'other,'" Comella told CNN. "Instead of trying anything remotely like unifying the country, we have a nominee who would rather pick fights because he views it as positive news coverage. It may make him media savvy, but it doesn't make him qualified or ready to be president."

On her party's response to Trump, Comella said: "Instead of speaking out against instances of bigotry, racism and inflammatory rhetoric whether it's been against women, immigrants or Muslims, we made a calculus that it was better to say nothing at all in the interest of politics and winning elections. For me, if our party has a future, we have to change that trajectory and lead by example."

Comella said she was not shocked at Trump's recent comments about Gold Star parents Khizr and Ghazala Khan, whose Muslim American son died in the Iraq War in 2004. Trump has hit back at the Khans for saying he has not read the Constitution after he suggested a ban on Muslim immigration.

"The President of the United States is charged with making some of the toughest decisions any human being should have to confront, including sending men and women to war and potentially death," Comella said." We can't have a President who doesn't understand the very human ramifications of those decisions and is unable to show humility and empathy in the face of grieving parents."
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